Despite opening the Duke Adidas Women's Soccer Classic on a high note with a 3-2 victory over Missouri Friday night, Duke ended its annual tournament in disappointing fashion.
The Blue Devils fell 3-2 to the Georgia Bulldogs Sunday afternoon, a devastating loss in which the Blue Devils rallied from an early deficit, only to relinquish their lead on two defensive blunders in the second half.
Over the course of the weekend, Duke experienced a complete reversal of emotions. After Friday's win over the previously unbeaten Tigers, the Blue Devils positively exuded confidence. By Sunday evening, however, all traces of the previous night's elation had vanished.
"I question our will to win," Duke coach Robbie Church said afterwards. "I question our will to be great. We're running out of time if we want to reach our goals. Right now, it's tough, but a lot of it is self-inflicted."
Nearly all of the five goals the Blue Devils allowed over the weekend resulted from defensive letdowns, a fact that left Duke goalkeeper Thora Helgadottir bewildered.
"We've let in pretty bad goals," she said. "We shouldn't be because we have the same players as last year. We should know each other well enough to avoid silly mistakes."
On Friday, Missouri jumped out to a 1-0 lead, scoring off a cornerkick as the Blue Devils failed to mark up properly.
"That was our third goal [allowed] off a set play this year, which is unbelievable," Church said Friday night. "Then we come out asleep in the second half, and give up a silly goal."
The second goal to which Church alluded resulted from a Duke defender's failed attempt at a back-pass to Helgadottir. The ill-struck
Duke's victory Friday night saw the emergence of forward Casey McCluskey. Making her first ever start in a Duke uniform, the freshman tallied two second-half goals, allowing the Blue Devils to overcome the two defensive lapses.
McCluskey's efforts proved all the more impressive as she overcame a first half benching to ignite Duke's rally.
"Casey's a great girl, and she's a great, talented player, but sometimes they're some things we want out of her, and she's either got to do them or come out," Church explained. "When I pulled her out of the first half I was definitely upset with her.
"She could have pouted and been useless to us the rest of the night. But to her credit, she didn't. She came back and stuck two winning goals in."
Commenting Friday night, Church expressed optimism that his team's ability to overcome the defensive lapses would be a step towards future success.
"We came out asleep in the second half," he said. "But the thing I was impressed with is that we could have panicked. We didn't. We did the things that we talked about that would make us successful, and we played very good soccer that last 20 minutes."
Unfortunately for Church, in surrendering the game-tying and game-winning goals against Georgia, Duke's backline again committed two startling blunders. The latter was especially disheartening. After confusion between two Duke defenders resulted in a failed clear, Georgia's Amy Berbary raced in to immediately capitalize off the Blue Devils' disorganization.
Attempting to describe his team's problems, Church struggled for an explanation. He alluded to the team's many injuries, including the absence of star midfielder Gwendolyn Oxenham, but he thought the team should have been able to overcome such setbacks.
If there was any moral consolation taken from the weekend, it was the inspired play of Sarah Pickens.
Seeing her first action since suffering a badly sprained knee two weeks ago, Duke's leading scorer last year tallied a goal and an assist in the tournament.
The senior talked about the difficulties of coming off an injury-forced hiatus.
"I think I played a little bit different," Pickens said. "Sitting out for two weeks, you miss playing, so in that aspect, you come out with crazy energy. But, at the same time, you haven't touched a ball in two weeks. So you play harder, but with less skill."
Despite waking up Saturday with a sore knee, Pickens played Sunday's contest with reckless abandon. In addition to scoring the goal which gave the Blue Devils a 2-1 advantage, the senior played tenaciously throughout the bitter defeat, frequently hurling herself feet first at ball-possessing Bulldog defenders.
In her coach's eyes, Pickens' inspired play was the highlight of the weekend. Speaking passionately, Church stated that Pickens' performance embodied the determination and grit needed from the entire team.
"We don't have enough Sarah Pickens'," Church said. "We don't have enough of the heart Sarah Pickens has for this team. Yeah, we work hard in practice, but we come out on the field and I don't know where it goes, sometimes. I'm so happy to see her able to come back, but in another sense I'm disappointed. We need to all play all like Sarah Pickens."
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